This Blueberry French Toast Bake is made with French bread, creamy custard, fresh blueberries and a delicious, buttery brown sugar streusel. It makes for an easy, scrumptious overnight breakfast casserole that is perfect for potlucks, Christmas morning and everything in between.
Easy Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake
This easy-peasy make-ahead breakfast stuffs everything that you love about warm blueberry muffins into a baked French toast casserole. It’s such a perfectly simple comfort food that tastes great any time of the year. During the peak of summer, you can use fresh blueberries, or in the winter pull out a bag of frozen blueberries. Either way, this tastes delish.
Jump to:
If you aren’t as big of a blueberry fan as we are, feel free to try a different berry, or even use mixed berries. Another simple variation would be to sprinkle a hefty dose of lemon zest over the top of the blueberries, just before adding the cinnamon brown sugar streusel. For a real treat, try serving this blueberry breakfast dream with your favorite syrup and a big dollop of whipped cream. Yum!
What To Serve With Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast Bake
Does this French toast bake absolutely need something to do with it? Nope. It’s 100% delicious as is. But, it never hurts to spruce things up a bit.
Here are a few of our favorite homemade sauces and syrups to try with this Blueberry French Toast Bake:
Ingredients in Blueberry French Toast Bake
- French Bread - you’ll need enough cubed bread to fill up a 9”x13” baking pan. When we have made this recipe, it takes about 10-12 slices, or ¾ of a loaf of French bread. You could also substitute challah if you wanted to try something a little different. No matter what, it’s best if your bread is slightly stale so that it will soak up the liquid better. Store any remaining bread cubes in an airtight container to use for croutons, bread crumbs or another batch of French toast bake.
- Eggs - any kind of large whole eggs will work.
- Milk - we prefer whole milk, but you can substitute 2% if you’d like.
- Maple Syrup - you can use all maple syrup, or else substitute a touch of honey for some of the maple syrup.
- Vanilla Extract - pure vanilla extract tastes best.
- Cream Cheese - this should be cut into ½” pieces.
- Blueberries - you can use fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries for this breakfast casserole.
- Flour - we use all-purpose flour for this recipe.
- Butter - this will taste best with unsalted butter. You can use either room temperature butter, or else cut cold butter into small cubes.
- Brown Sugar - we use light brown sugar but you can use dark brown sugar if you want a little more molassesy flavor.
- Cinnamon - any kind of ground cinnamon will work. You can also omit this if you prefer.
How to Make Blueberry French Toast Bake
- Spray or grease a 9 x 13" baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Place the cubed French bread, in an even layer, into the 9 x 13" baking dish. You want the bread to fill all the way to the top of the dish.
- In a large bowl, add the eggs, milk, maple syrup and vanilla extract, and whisk until the egg yolks are broken and all of the ingredients are well-combined. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the cubed bread.
- Place the cream cheese chunks evenly over the top of the bread mixture, then sprinkle the blueberries on top.
- In a small mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, make the streusel topping by adding the flour, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Use a spatula or spoon to mix until the butter chunks in the streusel are pea-sized.
- Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the French toast bake, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 4-48 hours.
- When you're ready to cook the French toast bake, be sure to take the casserole out of the fridge while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Be sure to allow the baking dish to come close to room temperature before baking (particularly if you use a glass dish), or at least 30 minutes.
- Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the edges of the French toast bake are golden brown and it is cooked through completely. Let cool slightly before slicing, then serve with the syrup of your choice and whipped cream. Enjoy!
Can I Freeze Blueberry French Toast Bake?
Yes! You can freeze this unbaked breakfast casserole if you want to make it even further ahead of time. Just prep everything up until baking, wrap well in both plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and store frozen in the baking dish for up to 1 month.
The day before baking, pull the casserole from the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. The next morning, pull out to room temperature and bake as directed.
Blueberry French Toast Bake Recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ loaf French Bread cut into 1" cubes (or enough to fill a 9 x 13" pan)
- 12 large Eggs
- 2 cups Milk
- ⅓ cup Maple Syrup
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 8 oz packages Cream Cheese cut into ½" pieces
- 1 ½ cups Blueberries fresh or frozen
Streusel Topping
- ⅓ cup All-Purpose Flour
- 6 Tablespoons Butter cut into small chunks
- ⅓ cup Light Brown Sugar
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
Instructions
- Spray or grease a 9 x 13" baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Place the cubed French bread, in an even layer, into the 9 x 13" baking dish. You want the bread to fill all the way to the top of the dish.
- In a large bowl, add the eggs, milk, maple syrup and vanilla extract, and whisk until the egg yolks are broken and all of the ingredients are well-combined. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the cubed bread.
- Place the cream cheese chunks evenly over the top of the bread mixture, then sprinkle the blueberries on top.
- In a small mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, make the streusel topping by adding the flour, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Use a spatula or spoon to mix until the butter chunks in the streusel are pea-sized.
- Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the French toast bake, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 4-48 hours.
- When you're ready to cook the French toast bake, be sure to take the casserole out of the fridge while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Be sure to allow the baking dish to come close to room temperature before baking (particularly if you use a glass dish).
- Bake at 350 for about 1 hour, or until the edges of the French toast bake are golden brown and it is cooked through completely. Let cool slightly before slicing, then serve with the syrup of your choice and whipped cream. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Here are some other breakfast casserole recipes to try!
- Sausage Egg Biscuit Casserole
- Apple Cinnamon French Toast Bake
- Pumpkin Stuffed French Toast with Pecan Crumble Topping
- Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole
- Easy Coconut French Toast Bake
If you’ve tried this recipe, please rate it and leave a comment on this post. I love hearing feedback from you helps me and other readers too! If you love Pinterest, feel free to leave a comment and photo there too. Also, if you like to share, use the hashtag #thecarefreekitchen on Instagram and tag me @thecarefreekitchen so I can find you and give your post some love. You can also find me on Facebook at The Carefree Kitchen. Thank you!!
This Blueberry French Toast Bake stuffs everything that you love about warm blueberry muffins into baked French toast. Your entire family will love this super delicious overnight breakfast casserole, made with French bread, creamy custard, fresh blueberries and a deliciously buttery brown sugar streusel.
Leave a Reply